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Bell City, Missouri - 2 schools
At $14,855 per pupil, Bell City R-Ii ranks #109 of 549 Missouri districts by per-pupil spending (Missouri districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
199
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$14,855
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Bell City R-Ii operates 2 public schools serving 199 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Missouri. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary, 1 combined schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Stoddard County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $14,855 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 549 Missouri districts by per-pupil spending. See how Missouri compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 51.1% local, 25.8% state, and 23.1% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers.
and 12.0% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 94.8% White, 2.6% Hispanic or Latino, 0.9% African American across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Bell City Elem., enrolling 105 students (54% of the district's total enrollment).
Bell City Elem. accounts for 52.8% of all Bell City R-Ii student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Bell City R-Ii a distant remainder — means Bell City R-Ii-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: elementary. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Bell City R-Ii has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 52.3% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Areas above 75% eligibility receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Bell City R-Ii chronic absenteeism rate is 12.0% — low (typically associated with lower-than-average attendance disruption; districts in this range often have attendance interventions, robust transportation, or smaller catchments that reduce barriers)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Bell City R-Ii has 2 schools, including 1 elementary, 1 combined. Total enrollment is 199 students.
How much does Bell City R-Ii spend per student?
Bell City R-Ii spends $14,855 per student.
What is the demographic composition of Bell City R-Ii?
Bell City R-Ii students are 94.8% White, 2.6% Hispanic or Latino, 0.9% African American, 0.6% Asian, averaged across 2 schools. Source: NCES CCD Membership 2024-25.